With a just a land description (Township and Range), you can use this page to
find the location of that land within the present-day state of Oklahoma.
If you have the Section Number as well, you can pinpoint the location within one
mile. Yes, even if you don't know which county it's in or the name
of a nearby town, post office, or railroad
station.

There are about 2,000 maps in the set, but you'll be presented with a
series of choices structured so that:

If you are our typical visitor, you are now only 3 or 4 clicks away
from the map you seek.

If you're unlucky, your numbered township is not only in one of the
larger counties with multiple maps but actually falls on the match
line. It will take 5 clicks, but we'll get you there.

If you're REALLY unlucky, your numbered township will turn out to be
one of those split by a county line. You may have to endure as
many as 7 clicks, but we'll still get you there.

Just work through the questionnaire, selecting the appropriate link out of each set of choices and you'll end
up at the Township Map your parcel is on.

You now have three of choices:

Jump
to the questionnaire if you are already familiar with the system itself.

Enter your description in the form "14N- 1E", or "1N-
1Ecm" if it is measured with respect to the Cimarron Meridian then click on
"Search" The catch is that it not only finds the needed map link,
but picks up every page with a reference
to any place in that township.

Descriptions have the form Section-Township-Range-Suffix, and
are easiest to decode if you simply work from right to left.

The SUFFIX will be "c" or "cm"
to identify the Cimarron Meridian as the Reference Meridian and "i" or "im"
to specify the Indian Meridian. In Oklahoma, if there is no suffix the description is usually with respect to the Indian Meridian.
That's the convention we've followed on this site.

RANGE is measured east or west from the
Reference Meridian and each Range is 6 miles wide.

TOWNSHIP is measured north or south from the
Base Parallel and each Township is 6 miles wide.

Each numbered Township is thus a square, 6 miles on each side, whose
location is defined by a Township Number and a Range Number.

A Section is a square mile (640 acres) within that numbered
Township. Sections are numbered using this pattern:

6

5

4

3

2

1

7

8

9

10

11

12

18

17

16

15

14

13

19

20

21

22

23

24

30

29

28

27

26

25

31

32

33

34

35

36

If you are working with a legal document, you may have a description of
the parcel's location within the section. Again, it is easiest to decode
the description from right to left.

Take, for example: S2 SE SE 21-14N-1E

There is no suffix, so we assume it is with respect to the Indian
Meridian.

Range 1E is the swath from the Indian Meridian itself to the line six
miles east.

Township 14N is the swath from 78 to 84 miles north of the Base
Parallel (go ahead, you can do the math if you like).

Section 21 can be located using the above chart.

The first SE means the southeast quarter of the section. That's
160 acres.

The second one means the southeast quarter of that quarter, which is 40
acres.

S2 means the south half of that 40 acres.

So if you use the "14N-1E" to find the township map
and then use the description and Section Number to pin it down, you'll see that
this would be a 20-acre tract extending 1/4-mile west and 1/8-mile north of the
intersection of Highway 66 and Luther Road.

Now, you should be ready to use the questionnaire to locate
your own parcel of land.

In the Panhandle all land descriptions are measured from an Initial Point
defined as 103° west Longitude (the Cimarron Meridian) and 36° 30' north
Latitude (the Cimarron Base Line). This is the southwestern corner
of the area, so that the entire Panhandle lies in the northeast quadrant and all
measurements are eastward from the Cimarron Meridian and northward from the
Texas border. Only three counties are involved and County lines
follow Range lines -- so if your description is with respect to the Cimarron
Meridian, your search will be a short one. Find your Range # below and
click on the corresponding County.

For all of Oklahoma except the Panhandle, land descriptions are measured from an
initial point about a mile south of old Fort Arbuckle. The original survey
was made in order to divide the Choctaw/Chickasaw Lands into separate
Nations. This point was chosen to divide what was then Indian Territory about evenly east
& west, to be near a well-known landmark and within the
surveyed area. In present-day terms, the origin (0,0) is on the Garvin-Murray
County line, six miles east of Hennepin.

To streamline the search, I prepared separate charts for each quadrant:

Ranges 1E through 27E and Townships 1N through 29N, broken into 9 segments.
Note that these are arranged as they would be on a map, with Township Numbers
increasing to the North and Range Numbers increasing to the East. Click on
the link that includes both your Township Number and Range Number.

Ranges 1W through 26W and Townships 1N through 29N, broken
into 9 segments. Note that these are arranged as they would be on a map, with
Township Numbers increasing to the North and Range Numbers increasing to the
West. Click on the link that includes both your Township Number and Range
Number.